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Worcestershire Inhabitants
(1327)The Worcestershire Lay Subsidy roll of the 1st year of king Edward III lists lay inhabitants of each township of the shire and of the five boroughs of Droitwich (Wych), Dudley, Evesham, Kidderminster and Worcester, with the amount of tax payable by each. The roll was edited for the Worcestershire Historical Society by the Reverend F. J. Eld, and published in 1895.

SHROPSHIRE. Cost: £4.00.

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London, Essex and Hertfordshire clerks, clerics, monks and clergy
(1361-1374)Ordinations to first tonsure, acolytes, subdeacons, deacons and priests, from the register of bishop Simon de Sudbury of London. London diocese covered Middlesex, Essex and part of Hertfordshire; the ordinations also attracted many persons from distant dioceses bearing letters dimissory from their ordinaries, and these are duly noted in the text. Many of these clerks would not go on to obtain benefices and remain celibate. The lists of subdeacons, deacons and priests state the clerks' respective titles, i. e., give the names of the person or religious house undertaking to support them. Monks and friars ('religious') are listed separately, and the lists of subdeacons, deacons and priests are also separated into beneficed and not beneficed (or 'not promoted'). The acolyte lists are unusual in giving a parish or diocese of origin.

SHROPSHIRE. Cost: £6.00.

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Grantees of offices, commissions and pardons
(1413-1416)The Patent Rolls are the Chancery enrolments of royal letters patent. Those for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years of the reign of king Henry V (21 March 1413 to 20 March 1416) were edited for the Public Record Office by R. C. Fowler, and published in 1910. The main contents are royal commissions and grants; ratifications of ecclesiastical estates; writs of aid to royal servants and purveyors; and pardons. The commissions of the peace issued for the English towns and counties and entered on the rolls, being largely repetitive, have been consolidated in a single appendix.

SHROPSHIRE. Cost: £2.00.

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Close Rolls
(1429-1435)The close rolls of the 8th to 13th years of the reign of king Henry VI record the main artery of government administration in England, the orders sent out day by day to individual officers, especially sheriffs of shires: they are an exceptionally rich source for so early a period. There is also some material relating to Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the English possessions in France. Also included is the Exchange Roll of 1424 to 1434, of licences to transmit sums of money out of the realm.

SHROPSHIRE. Cost: £4.00.

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Tenants, founders and incumbents of Yorkshire chantries
(1546-1548)Chantries were established to perform services for the souls of their founders and other faithful dead, including annual obits and anniversaries at which alms were usually distributed. The chantries could be at an existing altar in a parish church, a new altar in a side chapel of an existing church, in a new chapel in the churchyard or some miles from an existing church: few were founded before 1300, and most date from 1450 to 1500. Hospitals were places provided by similar foundations to receive the poor and weak; there were also religious guilds, brotherhoods and fraternities, and colleges (like large chantries at which three or more secular priests lived in common). An Act of Parliament of 1545 gave king Henry VIII the power to dissolve such chantries, chapels, &c., the proceeds to be devoted to the expenses of the wars in France and Scotland. Commissioners were appointed 14 February 1546 to survey the chantries and seize their property, and from 1546 to 1548 the commissioners produced these certificates giving brief details of the establishment and nature of each foundation, with an inventory of valuables and rental of lands. The individuals named in the certificates are thus the founder, the present incumbent, and the tenants whose rents provided the chantry's income. All the surviving certificates were edited by William Page for the Surtees Society, and published from 1892.

SHROPSHIRE. Cost: £6.00.

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PCC Probate Abstracts
(1630-1634)The Prerogative Court of Canterbury's main jurisdiction was central and southern England and Wales, as well as over sailors &c dying abroad: these brief abstracts usually give address, date of probate and name of executor or administrator

SHROPSHIRE. Cost: £2.00.

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Official Papers
(1690-1691)The State Papers Domestic cover all manner of business relating to Britain, Ireland and the colonies, conducted in the office of the Secretary of State as well as other miscellaneous records. Includes lists of passes to travel abroad.

SHROPSHIRE. Cost: £4.00.

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Apprentices registered at Bristol in Gloucestershire
(1713-1715)Apprenticeship indentures and clerks' articles were subject to a 6d or 12d per pound stamp duty: the registers of the payments usually give the master's trade, address, and occupation, and the apprentice's father's name and address, as well as details of the date and length of the apprenticeship. There are central registers for collections of the stamp duty in London, as well as returns from collectors in the provinces. These collectors generally received duty just from their own county, but sometimes from further afield. July 1713 to April 1715. For some reason, the Bristol collector was the only one in the country to make his return in Latin. (The sample entry shown on this scan is taken from a Norfolk return)

SHROPSHIRE. Cost: £8.00.

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Masters and Apprentices
(1717)Apprenticeship indentures and clerks' articles were subject to a 6d or 12d per pound stamp duty: the registers of the payments usually give the master's trade, address, and occupation, and the apprentice's father's name and address, as well as details of the date and length of the apprenticeship. 1 January to 8 November 1717.

SHROPSHIRE. Cost: £8.00.

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Masters and Apprentices
(1718)Apprenticeship indentures and clerks' articles were subject to a 6d or 12d per pound stamp duty: the registers of the payments usually give the master's trade, address, and occupation, and the apprentice's father's name and address, as well as details of the date and length of the apprenticeship.